News Release

VIA Launches CN400 Advanced Digital Media Chipset

Further extends VIA's industry leadership in developing low power, feature rich platforms for a new generation of Smart Digital Entertainment Devices

CeBIT, Hannover, Germany, 19 March 2004 - VIA Technologies, Inc, a leading innovator and developer of silicon chip technologies and PC platform solutions, today announced the introduction of the new VIA CN400 advanced digital media chipset, enabling the delivery of a compelling Hi-Def™ visual experience on the rapidly emerging new generation of smart digital entertainment devices such as PVRs, set top boxes, and media centers.

Integrating the S3 Graphics UniChrome™ Pro IGP graphics core, the VIA CN400 leverages the advanced hardware MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 acceleration features of the Chromotion™ CE Video Display Engine, as well as advanced video rendering techniques such as Adaptive De-interlacing and Video De-blocking, to deliver exceptional digital video playback and streaming capabilities in a wide variety of industry standard formats.

When combined with a choice of low power VIA Eden™, VIA C3®, and VIA Antaur™ processors running at speeds of up to 1.4GHz, the VIA CN400 provides a highly flexible and feature rich platform that enables the development of compact, low-noise desktop and mobile entertainment devices based on a variety of motherboard form factors, including the highly-acclaimed VIA EPIA Mini-ITX and forthcoming VIA EPIA N Nano-ITX mainboards.

"With the launch of the CN400, VIA is further extending its leadership in developing innovative, highly integrated platforms for building the next generation of smart digital entertainment devices," commented Steven S. Lee, Head of the VIA Embedded Platforms Division. "Through the incorporation of advanced new features such as MPEG-4 acceleration, the CN400 provides our customers with the functionality they need to create exciting new products that take full advantage of the tremendous market opportunities offered by the convergence of computing, communications and consumer electronics."

The VIA CN400 digital media chipset is on show at CeBIT 2004 at the VIA booth in Hall 23, booth D21, and motherboards based on the chipset are expected to be available in Q2 2004.

For further product details, please visit the VIA website at: www.via.com.tw/en/c-series/cn400.jsp.

Further information about VIA's participation at CeBIT 2004 can be seen at:
http://www.via.com.tw/en/events/cebit2004.jsp.

About the VIA CN400 Chipset

In addition to providing unmatched support for HDTV outputs, flawless digital video playback and intelligent video rendering techniques through the Chromotion CE Video Display Engine, the VIA CN400's UniChrome Pro IGP graphics core also delivers exceptional integrated 2D/3D graphics performance. Featuring dual 128-bit pipelines and an advanced 200MHz graphics engine with support for up to 64MB of shared DDR memory, the chipset also offers an optional external AGP 8X port to allow the flexibility of a graphics card upgrade if required.

In addition to running a complete range of low power VIA C3, VIA Eden, and VIA Antaur processors, the VIA CN400 features the FastStream64™ DDR memory controller, which combines support for the latest DDR266/333/400 memory modules with lightning fast memory access to ensure optimum system performance.

In combination with the VIA VT8237R South Bridge, the VIA CN400 offers a comprehensive range of integrated storage, multimedia and connectivity options, including native Serial ATA and V-RAID, with support for multiple RAID configurations, as well as support for VIA Vinyl Audio, and high-throughput Gigabit Ethernet with the VIA Velocity controller.

The VIA CN400 is part of VIA's unique Modular Architecture Platform (V-MAP) strategy, which minimizes design times and time-to-market for motherboard partners through a flexible, pin-compatible design approach for VIA core-logic solutions. Motherboard partners are able to cover multiple market segments with a single design, and also benefit from a single unified driver base.

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